INTRODUCTION
ten inches long and as sharp as a needle. As in these cases
also the leaf-sheaths are covered with spines, such palms offer
a serious obstacle to the traveller who attempts to penetrate
the tropical forest.
Branching is a rare occurrence in the tall aerial stem. It
is the rule only in a few species of the genus Hyphc&ne (tkcbaica,
coriavea, and indica). In these palms the stem forks, often
several times in succession, and there is no doubt that here we
have cases of true dichotomy, similar to the mode of branching
observed in Pandanus furcatus (Screw-pine). In ten other
genera (out of a total of 131) exceptional cases of branching
are recorded. These are often due to an injury to the terminal
bud, as in the Wild Date, where the apex is continually tapped
for toddy. In other cases branching takes place in eonsoquence
of the replacement of flowering buds by leaf-buds, which
develop into shoots. Mr. F. Field gives a photograph of a Wild
Date Palm with 14 branches (Journal, Bombay Natural History
Society, Vol. xvm, p. 699) that was growing at a village named
Amas in the Gaya District, and he mentions that at one time the
tree had been struck by lightning and split, *\nd that from the
base of the split those branches started.
The formation of horizontal suckers at the base of the stem
is more frequent. When thoy grow erect, they afford a
characteristic bushy habit, as in the case of Rhapfa flabelliformwr
a species often cultivated in gardens.
The Leaf.—The foliage generally forms a magnificent crown
at the end of the trunk. It is this crown that renders the
palms objects of such beauty and elegance. The leaves are
large and often gigantic, surpassing those of any other class of
plants. In some species they are 50 feet long and 8 wide. We
can easily distinguish two main types of leaves, the palmate
and pinnate, which give rise* to the popular terms Pan-palm and
Feather-palm respectively; In the Fan-palms tho blade is entire
while enclosed in the bud, but folded up. When the loaf
expands the folds become torn to a greater or less distance
from the margin inwards. The depth of division varies much
in different genera and species. In the pinna* (leaflets, seg-
ments) of the Feather-palms we can observe similar characteris-
tic foldings and tearings. The preschce or absence of a
terminal leaflet and the shape of the pinnae in such a leaf afford